On Thu, 12 Feb 1998, Ty Sarna wrote:

> Date: Thu, 12 Feb 1998 21:33:01 -0600 (CST)
> From: Ty Sarna <tsarna@endicor.com>
> To: mellon@hoffman.vix.com
> Cc: current-users@NetBSD.ORG
> Subject: Re: serial port control
> 
> In article <199802122339.PAA20819@andare.fugue.com> you write:
> > 
> > > Just to bury some netbsd relevant info here (is anyone else still
> > > paying attention? ;-)) I got a email note from APC saying they would
> > > license the APC Smart-UPS protocol for a nominal $50 fee.  Heck, I'll
> > > pay the $50 bucks if it will let me implement the full daemon and if I
> > > could then donate the code to NetBSD.
> > 
> > Do they make you sign anything, or is it just a fee you pay?
> 
> I did this a while back.  I made sure I got it and it looked good
> _before_ I bought the unit (Smart-UPS 2200 -- I wasn't gong to drop that
> much money on a product unless I was damn sure I knew everything I might
> want to know about it first) and I had to sign an NDA.  And not only can
> I not distribute source for my software, but no binaries either
> (especially not for a fee -- They don't want me to compete with
> PowerChute, I guess). 
> 
> Still, at the time it was the best offer going. Most of the companies
> wouldn't give out anything under any circumstances (one told me that
> Compaq was the only company they'd ever given the information to).
> Interestingly, all the people I talked to at the companies seemed to
> think (speaking for themselves) that the situation sucked, and that the
> protocols should be available. And APC was nice to deal with. So, don't
> hassle 'em. Relative to industry average, they're the good guys.
> 
I have a Best Power UPS and they distribute their software freely on their
web site, even a unix version with source code, not as fancy as the
win95 stuff but functional.
                              dms@celtech.com